A respected Swiss newspaper wrote about ‘King Orbán’s empire’

A prestigious Swiss news portal, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ), published a report on Hungary on its front page. Its title is ‘König Orbans Verrat: Während in Ungarn die Armut um sich greift, baut sich der Ministerpräsident ein Schloss’, which means ‘King Orbán’s betrayal: While poverty is rampant in Hungary, the prime minister builds himself a castle’.

A lengthy report on Orbán’s regime

The Swiss Neue Zürcher Zeitung published a lengthy report on Felcsút and the EU funds Hungary is entitled to. When rtl.hu noticed the article, it was the leading publication on the portal. The article focuses on the Felcsút railway as a symbol of the Orbán regime as a whole. The narrow-gauge railway used to run as far as Székesfehérvár, but was closed in 1980, rtl.hu writes. However, during Viktor Orbán’s premiership a 6-kilometre section was reopened, which critics say actually leads nowhere.

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The author of the NZZ notes that EUR 2.5-5 billion is transferred from Brussels to Hungary every year. That sum is about 3 percent of GDP and 6-7 percent of budget expenditure, the site writes. Only these EU transfers have been able to sustain economic growth, without which the collapse would have been inevitable, they write. The situation is not rosy at present, with inflation at almost 25 percent, the highest in the EU.

The distrust started with the Felcsút railway

The portal also wrote about the distrust between Orbán and the EU. According to them, this started with the Felcsút railway. A Hungarian opposition MEP denounced the project, which prompted an OLAF investigation. A delegation visited Felcsút specifically to see this EUR 2 million tourism project. Of course, there was no sign of the 2 500-7 000 passengers per day originally forecast.

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The article details the Orbán empire in Felcsút. It explains to Swiss readers the origins of the regime, the many players in Hungarian politics and the highly distorted public sphere. The author concludes the article with a saying attributed to Ferenc Puskás: “Money ruins everything”. The legend allegedly said this when he returned home after a long absence. “Hungarian football is dead because everyone was only after money.” Democracy could suffer a similar fate, writes the Swiss journalist.

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Source: rtl.hu, nzz.ch